Are you smarter than a suitcase?

How about a suitcase that can tell you exactly where it has been. If you and your suitcase become separated it can alert you to it's whereabouts on your phone. Speaking of phones, how about being able to remotely lock your suitcase through an app. 

Sound amazing? But wait there's more. It has a built in digital scale that tells you the weight to avoid those expensive overweight charges. Looking for a place to charge your phone? This suitcase has a built-in charger for your phone and other electronics. 

Sound too good to be true?  Its the new Bluesmart luggage and it's expected to be released August - October of 2015. Its the result of a massively successful crowd funding project on Indigogo that raised over 2 million dollars and has pre-sold over 7000 units.

Why is this interesting? Well it's another example of the rapidly developing Internet of Things (IoT) where everything will have some smarts built-in and be connected to each other. 

What will this mean for marketers? There is quite a bit of speculation in marketing circles about this but one thing is for certain - there will be a whole lot more data which means potentially better understanding consumer's usage and the ability to design better products. Here is a video from IBM's Smarter Planet that describes the basic concepts behind the IoT.

Stay tuned...